Instrument Suggestions?

[Whyren]

I've played the trumpet for many years, sung for nearly as many and have begun playing the piano in recent years. As a music major, I'd eventually like to be able to at least play many instruments, but I'd really like to become proficient with a few, specifically violin, saxophone, and acoustic guitar. As I don't know much about the producers of these instruments, does anyone have suggestions as to what I should look for? A simple "learning" instrument would work at first, but I may want to get a more professional-quality one later on. Would I be better off getting high quality instrument right off the bat, or should I find a lower quality (or see if I can find one at a garage sale or something) first?

[CanadaRAM]

I've played the trumpet for many years, sung for nearly as many and have begun playing the piano in recent years. As a music major, I'd eventually like to be able to at least play many instruments, but I'd really like to become proficient with a few, specifically violin, saxophone, and acoustic guitar. As I don't know much about the producers of these instruments, does anyone have suggestions as to what I should look for? A simple "learning" instrument would work at first, but I may want to get a more professional-quality one later on. Would I be better off getting high quality instrument right off the bat, or should I find a lower quality (or see if I can find one at a garage sale or something) first?
Acoustic guitar is a good all 'rounder, for accompaniment, songwriting, solo performance, campfires, teaching what have you. There are excellent instruments being made in the $400 region, some equipped with pickups for amplifying. One batch I like are the group of brands - Seagull, Norman, Godin, La-Si-Do made in Quebec. Your regular suspects as well, Takamine, Yamaha, CF Martin, Fender are worth a look, although some of those are priced above their station, and there are some entry-level Yamahas and Fenders that are a bit tacky.

I have had a Takamine for 20 years, and it is good, if I were spending $800 I would consider another, But if I were spending $400 I would look at the Quebec models.

[katie ta achoo]

If you're looking for a violin or viola, go to an actual strings shop. Don't go to H&H or Mars or whatever horrible chain store there is.

overpriced and under-quality. really bad.

Uhmmm
other than that, I'd say test it out before you buy. Very important.

[Macaddicttt]

The best advice I can give is buy used. You can get a decent used saxophone for $300 or even less. Search pawn shops and local music stores. Definitely don't buy anything new or anything too nice if you're just learning. Wait until you know you're completely serious about it. If you buy a used instrument, as long as you keep good care of it, it will not really depreciate in value at all and you can sell it to someone else for about the same price as what you bought it. If you do get serious, then buy something nicer, but they're far too expensive for beginners. My saxophone, for example, had a retail price of $5000. Buy something used and cheap, get good, then save up for a nice instrument.

But if you do buy used, make sure that it's in good condition. If you buy it from a music store, make sure that they check it out and insure that it's in a good, playable condition. If you find something in a pawn shop, see if they'll let you borrow it for a while and get it checked out somewhere.

Just buy something used. Instruments can be way too expensive. Guitars are probably cheapest, then woodwinds, then strings. You can easily spend $4000 on a bow.

Also, one more thing about the saxophone. You might consider learning the clarinet first. The clarinet is the hardest woodwind to play. If you learn clarinet first, you can easily learn the saxophone or flute or oboe or whatever. It's much harder to go the other way. Trust me, I've done it. So if you're serious about learning woodwinds, try the clarinet. If you are less serious about it and just want to play the sax for fun, just go straight to the sax.

[CanadaRAM]

The best advice I can give is buy used. You can get a decent used saxophone for $300 or even less. Search pawn shops and local music stores.
Pawn shops around here anyway are no bargain. They know that newbies will come in expecting to get bargains, so they take the cheapest quality instruments and crank the price up double. Many pawn shops don't even sell most of their guitars used - they buy them in 100 lots from China at $25 each then hang them on the walls at $249 "Marked down to $179!!". (Check out the eBay Wholesale Musical Instruments section.. scary)

[peterparker]

Check out Art & Lutherie (http://www.artandlutherieguitars.com/models.htm) for a really decent guitar for beginners.

[jestershinra]

If you're looking for a good introduction acoustic, I'd look at the Taylor 100 series. It's a bit more than the lowest-end ($600, I think), but it plays great. I love mine. Even if you're going to buy something else, I'd play as many guitars as possible.

[MacFan25863]

I started on clarinet, and then slowly expanded. I now play the clarinet, flute, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, and piano. I'm planning on picking up bass drum in winterline this year.


Like Macaddicttt, I suggest starting on clarinet. To this day, I find it hardest to play. It's much less forgiving than the sax is in terms of embrochure and finger placement.

[pknz]

I started on the Clarinet and then moved to the trumpet.

I found that beginner Saxophonists sound like demented cows. Clarinets have a much mellower sound. Pretty much once you learn a Clari/Sax its not to difficult switching from one to t'other. Same goes for Trumpet/Horn basically same finger positions etc.

[lem0n]

Once you learn a woodwind, you can expand... I learned flute, then piccolo [now I can play piccolo better than flute but piccolo is no good for quiet times...] then go to clarinet, then to soprano saxophone [a bit biased since I play soprano :p]. I hope to learn oboe since the sound of oboe is so nice but I've hear plenty of story about oboeist go crazy from the pressure on their brains and oboe reed is like $14/piece :eek: oh yeah, I want to learn trombone... All of our trombonists [which totalled 2] is mad cute and left handed... It helps that they're brothers... :P

[CanadaRAM]

Check out Art & Lutherie (http://www.artandlutherieguitars.com/models.htm) for a really decent guitar for beginners.
Ah yes, I thought I was missing one name - they are nother of the Quebec cabal of guitar makers, same comany as Godin

[GorillaPaws]

I had a Seagull - the entry level model. It was a wonderful guitar but the head cracked on it (I think due to the humidity shift -went from humid virginia august summer weather to cool and dry september weather was the culprit I think). Anyways, it had a lifetime guarantee, so I sent it in and they replaced it w/ a much more expensive model - built-in pickup, cutaway etc. Several months later, they caught their mistake but let me keep it cause it'd been so long. That was several years ago and I still love my guitar. The cedar top mellows with age and has a wonderful sound. If you go the guitar route, I HIGHLY recommend their products, you're paying for quality, not the brand name.